5 billion barrels and 85 years of people, partnership and performance in the permian basin

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5 billion barrels and 85 years of people, partnership and performance in the permian basin

March 9, 2011 – While Chevron celebrated a milestone on Feb 23rd—surpassing 5 billion barrels of oil and gas production in the Permian Basin—the company also tipped its hat to 85 years of people, partnership and performance in the region.

Through our legacy companies, Chevron has been a fixture in the Permian Basin since the early 1920s and is now the second-largest oil producer in the basin. Our net daily production from the Permian Basin, which is the largest oil-producing basin in the United States representing more than 20 percent of the total U.S. oil production, is more than 115,000 barrels of oil equivalent.

With almost 4 million acres spanning West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, Chevron has 13 field management teams operating approximately 11,000 wells in hundreds of fields throughout the Permian.

Playground for Oil and Gas Professionals

"The one constant over the years has been our commitment to the people of the Permian Basin," said Mitch Mamoulides, Permian South area manager. "That includes the employees whose hard work and ingenuity are the foundation of our success, as well as people in the communities we serve and partner with to improve lives and opportunities in the region."

And with so many opportunities, the basin is a veritable playground for oil and gas professionals to develop and grow.

"We know that oil and gas engineers in the Permian have an unparalleled opportunity to learn from the ground up, to get their hands on more producing wells than most people see in a career," said Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President of Upstream & Gas George Kirkland, who attended today's celebration in Midland, Texas. "You can work a variety of operations—just about every kind of operation the company has on land—and the ideas you get today can become reality in a matter of months."

Technology Extends Life

Technology is helping us to extend the life of the mature fields in the Permian Basin, to discover new unconventional resource plays, and to improve the environmental performance of our operations. Advances such as waterflooding, carbon dioxide flooding, artificial lift, fracturing, horizontal drilling and 3-D seismic imaging have unlocked additional resources previously unattainable.

Meanwhile, automation technologies such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition improve field management and i-field™ software is enabling colleagues to redefine cross-functional collaboration between surface, subsurface, construction and drilling operations.

These new methods and technologies are directly responsible for the development of our Lupin project in the Wolfcamp resource play. Once thought past its prime, Wolfcamp will add significant reserves to the Chevron portfolio while illustrating the continued vitality and potential of the Permian Basin.

"We're committed to extending the life of our mature fields in the Permian Basin while searching unconventional resources for new opportunities," said Mike Rieken, oil area manager. "This commitment relies on leveraging cutting-edge technology while training the workforce of the future to use it."

Continued Growth

To produce the next 5 billion barrels, Chevron will continue to look for innovative technologies that increase the yield, efficiency and reliability of new and existing assets. We'll prepare the workforce of the future at our state-of-the-art training center near Midland, Texas. And we'll continue leveraging technologies to reduce our environmental footprint in the region.

"Chevron's assets in the Permian Basin continue to be a vital piece of our overall portfolio," said Gary Luquette, president of Chevron North America Exploration and Production Co. "Through our legacy companies, we've been here for more than 85 years and 5 billion barrels of production. We plan on being here for a long time and working on the next 5 billion barrels."